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Ashwin hangs on to slender lead after Round 2 of 21st JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship

02 September 2018

Coimbatore, September 2:Chennai’s Ashwin Datta emerged as the hero of Round 2 of the JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship here on Sunday, setting the stage for a thrilling three-way tussle for supremacy in the Euro JK 2018 category.

Chennai’s Vishnu Prasad and Joseph Mathew continued to hold sway in the LGB 4 and Suzuki Gixxer categories while 14-year-old Tijil Rao jumped into the spotlight by winning his life’s first race.

Aizawl’s Jerome Vanlalrengpuia booked his trip to Spain for the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup qualifiers next month. Jerome posted the fastest timing in the qualifiers over the two rounds of Red Bull Road to Rookies.

He finished on 32 points along with PC Andy Lalhmangaihsanga, who clinched Race 2.

The Euro JK races had the packed stands on the edge of their seats as Ashwin Datta, Nayan Chatterjee and Karthik Tharani went all out for the top position on the championship leaderboard.

Level on 43 points each before the weekend’s final race, Ashwin proved to be the man with nerves of steel. He won the morning race and claimed the second place in the afternoon to take a wafer thin lead of one point, with 50 points in his kitty.

Mumbai’s Nayan Chatterjee surged to the second place by amassing 29 points over the weekend. He struggled with his car but still managed to finish second in Race 3. He began on P10 in Race 4 and moved to the fifth before inching up to the third place. He now has 49 points after his two victories on Day 1.

Karthik Tharani is right on their tail with 48 points.

Seasoned racer Vishnu (MSport) began with yet another command performance in the LGB 4 on Sunday. Starting from P7, thanks to the reverse grid, he quickly made his way past the traffic to clinch Race 2 with 5.9 seconds to spare.

He was, however, up against it in Race 3, with teammate Raghul Rangasamy and Rohit Khanna (Dark Don Racing) outmanoeuvring him early on. Vishnu went for the kill in the final lap and dislodged Rohit but couldn’t deny the wily Rangasamy a much-deserved victory.

Rohit took the third place in both the races.

The JK Tyre Novice Cup saw a thrilling finish, with the safety car foiling Vishwas Vijayaraj’s (DTS racing) attempt for a double in virtually the last lap. As the cars regrouped and went for broke, Ashwin Nair and 14-year-old Tijil Rao sandwiched Vishwas, and left him in their trail.

But Ashwin was slapped a 10-second penalty for avoidable collision, which saw him tumbling down to the eighth place. It gave Tijil, a young racer who was born with clubfoot and had to be operated upon twice just to walk normally, grabbed his first ever victory at this level.

Chennai’s Joseph Mathew continued his unbeaten run in the Gixxer Cup, winning his fourth race on the trot. Syed Muzammil Ali and Malasawmdawnglama took the other two places on the podium.

RED BULL ROAD TO ROOKIES

About JK Tyre Motorsport:

JK Tyre has always been closely associated with the world of sports. Almost three decades back the company laid down a long term and sustained approach to promote Motorsport. Participating in this form of the sport has helped the company in continuously updating its products to meet the challenges of gruelling Indian conditions. The sport at that time in India was perceived for elite but JK Tyre took upon itself to package and redesign the sport to suit the masses. The company not only made the sport affordable but also equivalent to International operating standards. JK Tyre’s foray into Motorsport was a well thought out strategic decision to not only use and develop this virgin branding platform but also to realize the dreams of making India a force in the field of motor sport.

In 2011, the company acquired the Formula BMW Series and rechristened it as the JK Racing Asia Series (JKRAS). With this acquisition, JK Tyre created history in Indian Motorsport by becoming the first Indian company to acquire an FIA accredited series. By taking over the series, JK Tyre promises to utilize it as a platform to encourage and support the world’s best racing drivers and promote India as one of Asia’s motorsport capitals.

Thus, JK Tyre has conquered two steps in the motorsport program where the new racing aspirants first establish themselves in

India, then graduate to Asian level i.e. to Formula BMW, which is now JKRAS and then they move to higher levels of racing. JK Tyre now stands closer to achieving its mission of bringing world-class motorsport to the Indian masses. The Racing and Karting programme by JK Tyre has been the breeding ground for the country's motorsport talents like Narain Karthikeyan, Armaan Ebrahim, Karun Chandhok, Aditya Patel and other emerging talent.

Another pioneering initiative was the launch of the Truck Racing Championship in India in partnership with Tata Motors. The company developed & designed “JetRacing”-the new generation truck racing tyres especially for this application. With this, JK Tyre became the first tyre company to produce truck racing tyres in India. The combination of the Prima trucks fitted with Jet Racing received an overwhelming response from participants and has definitely brought in a revolution in the Indian racing scenario.